


people change

by panther



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 02:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5691970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry volunteers to work Christmas Day in St Mungos so Healers with families can stay at home. The day is long and tiring and during the night he finds Draco Malfoy in the healer lounge arguing with the</p>
            </blockquote>





	people change

Working on Christmas day is not something anyone wants to do. Whether his fellow healers refer to it as Christmas or Yule they all want to be home with their families. Harry does not have one of those so he finds himself volunteering. His shift will start at three in the afternoon and run until six am the next morning. He is not entirely sure that is legal but he is not going to force some other sod in during the night and he isn't going to ask Hermione about it either. He will still have time to see Teddy in the morning and that matters a lot to him. Ginny is still utterly furious with him for ending their relationship so avoiding the Weasley household is probably for the best, even if Molly would want him to be there. 

*

He is touched to find Andromeda wrestling with a turkey when he arrives at eleven to see Teddy. He is briskly informed that lunch will be served at half past and no she does not want to hear his arguments or thanks for that matter. She will not have a member of her family missing out on Christmas dinner and that is that. He does not know what to say but that is ok because Teddy cannot seem to stop talking. Harry is pulled from one gift to the next until Teddy runs out of steam and turns hopeful eyes on his Godfather. Harry tilts his head to wind him up for just a few moments before producing the shrunken package from his robes. The spells has only just finished reversing before Teddy is tearing at the paper and screaming for his gran because a red bmx bike now sits proudly in Andromeda's living room. 

He never thought this Christmas could be so wonderful.

* 

Work returns him to reality. Most of his calls are to small children who have attempted to eat their presents. It feels like his ears are ringing with the screams of toddlers even as he checks re-grows the bones of a drunken eighteen year old hours later. Coffee is screaming his name by the time is paperwork is finished at nearly three am but he stops dead when he enters the lounge.

"This _is_ the healers' lounge, you know." Harry snaps on old instincts. The sight of Draco Malfoy always sets him on edge. It always has and it always will. He is certain of it. 

Draco, of course, sneers "But potion developers don't even _have_ a lounge, never mind a kettle. I'm not about to make coffee in a cauldron. Some of us are actually civilised beings, Potter."

"Oh, learned to recognise your superiors have you?"

"Shove off you scar faced git. I'm _tired_." And with that Draco turns back to the Muggle coffee machine and gives it a rather violent whack with his wand. The wand Harry has not seen in years but somehow feels in his hand as he watches it. "Any milk?"

"What?"

" _Milk_ , Potter!"

"Oh, right, yeah, cupboard above you. It's under a charm."

Draco gives a terse nod and continues with his coffee making. Harry is pleasantly surprised to find that when he moves to the table he has a second cup for him too, and more so that he says nothing about the Muggle machine he had to use to get it. "Thanks."

A grunt is his only reply. Harry suddenly remembers the five year old he has in status at the end of the corridor. "You're working on the _Draught of Living Death_ aren't you?"

A nod. "You can't keep her under status more than another twelve hours and the stores are empty. I'm going to _murder_ Higgins for letting that happen. Of all the things to run out of. And when we're shorthanded at _Yule too!_ "

 

"It could have been our end. Sometimes healers grab things and don't log it due to emergency situations." Harry offers, feeling bad for Malfoy and as a consequence feeling weird about it. The blond wizard shakes his head. 

"No. Higgins is a complete _berk_. He's lazy. His family had money. Before the war. They threw it all at remaining neutral by bribing... _him_ to be left out of it. He never thought he would have to work. Never thought he would need to. I wish someone would just fire him already. Hogwarts is firing out talented kids by the dozen when it comes to Potions now that Slughorn is teaching."

Why Malfoy has opened up Harry is not sure. Maybe he is tired and maybe he is genuinely nicer these days as others have said. He takes the bait. 

"Thought you were behind Snape all the way?"

A wry smile as he takes a sip of his coffee. "Slytherins needed protection from somewhere and I just happened to be good at potions but there is no denying that as a teacher he was no better than dragon dung. Shame really. Longbottom is doing some really great things with Herbology right now but he's hampered by needing someone with Potions skills to check his work before it goes forward. I find it interesting to do for him but if he had been under Slughorn....maybe he'd manage well enough to do all the work himself."

Harry had no idea. Neville and Malfoy? Working together? Communicating? It is like being in an alternative universe. "You've changed, Malfoy."

Tired eyes find Harry's. "Well yes. It is called growing up. I needed to do a lot of it. War makes you realise these things. I did bad things. I avoided a cell because of you. It woke me up and I decided to do something useful and something I like...something...for myself."

"Glad to hear it." And Harry is. They don't talk after that. Draco is struggling to stay awake and Harry is not much better but the tension is gone. Harry doesn't imagine it coming back.


End file.
